Privatization and the ‘International Schools’: The need to maintain standard

Abstract

It is a consensus that education plays a crucial role in the development of any society and that is why nations of the world place premium on its provision and management and Nigeria is no exception. The introduction of western education was a private initiative – Christian Missionaries – and they were fully in charge between 1842 and 1882 when the first Education Ordinance was promulgated to improve the education system. The government take-over of schools even, after independence, to sanitize the sector had to be dropped to allow continual participation of private individuals and institutions, because of the huge investment involved in the provision of education. But there is a trend of events in the private participation that calls for urgent attention; substandard schools that are not even supposed to exist are being approved as ‘International Schools’ or ‘Group of Schools’ and this does not augur well for our system. The researcher had visited some of these schools and it could be said that there is no standard put in place or enforced by the approving authorities at all. Also, there is no regular inspection of these schools to ensure that the teachers are qualified and competent. It is therefore recommended among others that government should put in place a standard as a matter of urgency to prevent further rot in the education system.

 Key Words: Education, International School, Privatization and Standard

Akanbi, G. O. (2013). Privatization and the ‘International Schools’: The need to maintain standard. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 5(1), 119-133. http://ijse.padovauniversitypress.it/about-ijse)

Paper Presented at the 9^th Annual National Conference of History of Education Society of Nigeria, Provost Conference Centre, Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo.